523 - June 27, 1968

[bunniefuu]

NARRATOR: A mysterious visitor has come

to the great house at Collinwood

looking for Cassandra Collins,

but Cassandra has disappeared,

and her whereabouts are unknown to everyone.

Determined to find her and bring her back,

the stranger has gone to the old house

on the Collins estate.

There he has obtained information

which leads him down into a room

that holds a dark and terrible secret.

The Reverend Trask, I presume.

Where is Cassandra?

What have you done with her?

Don't you know I'll find out?

Don't you know you cannot resist me?

You soon will know if you don't now.

Well, Reverend, you are of no use to me

in your present state.

So I command you to come back.

Back from the grave.

Appear before me in this room as you really are.

Now, Reverend!

Now!

TRASK: Who summons me?

Appear before me.

TRASK: Who are you?

You do not know me.

TRASK: And why do you summon me?

I have commanded you. You will appear.

♪♪

[EERIE THEME MUSIC] ♪♪

Why have you disturbed my rest?

You have disrupted my plan, Reverend,

and one bad turn deserves another.

Who are you?

The one who has commanded you.

The one that you will obey.

Surely, you must know by this time, Reverend,

that there is no rest for the wicked.

I am a man of God.

[LAUGHS INSIDIOUSLY]

A man of God, indeed.

In your time you were the greatest

of all possible fools, Mr. Trask.

Reverend Trask!

You were a blind, overzealous fanatic,

a bigot, and a fraud,

intolerant, cruel, and unjust.

A man after my own heart.

I know who you are.

BLAIR: Who?

You are the devil himself come to tempt me.

How you do flatter yourself, Mr. Trask.

Even if you're not the devil,

you are surely in league with him,

but I will not be tempted.

I will not listen to you.

You have no choice.

I can return to my grave.

When I say so, and not before.

No, I spent my life resisting Satan.

You only thought you did.

I served only the Almighty.

What a poor, deluded creature you must have been.

I command thee be gone.

Cast thyself back into hell from whence thee came.

Be gone!

Very impressive,

but as you can see, totally ineffective.

Now you will soon learn, Mr. Trask,

that I give the orders.

Now, tell me what you have done with the witch.

I will tell you nothing.

Where is she?

You can be of no help to her now.

She has done battle with the Almighty,

and is beyond redemption.

The forces of evil have been drawn out of her,

and destroyed forever.

You have performed an exorcism?

Yes, and what has been done cannot be undone.

I will be the judge of that. Tell me where it happened.

I will not.

Do I detect a note of fear, Mr. Trask?

I do not fear you.

But you are afraid to tell me

where the right of exorcism took place.

You are afraid I may be able to bring her back.

No.

Then you have nothing to fear by telling me.

I would not lift one finger

to help those who do the devil's bidding.

I will allow you to return to your grave,

and rest in peace,

only if you tell me what I want to know.

You are my prisoner now, Trask.

I can see to it that you never find any peace.

I can sentence you to walk the earth

in the agony of loneliness for the rest of time.

I am not without a weapon to battle your evil.

[GROANS]

I have the power of the Almighty to protect me,

and you are helpless before that power,

helpless!

[LAUGHS]

You haven't seen the last of me, Trask!

And you have helped me whether you know it or not

because now I know

that an exorcism has been performed.

And that is a beginning.

I will find my Cassandra, and bring her back.

♪♪

[WIND HOWLING]

Good afternoon, Carolyn.

Good afternoon, Mr. Blair.

Is there any reason why you don't want to call me Nicholas?

I don't know you well enough.

But after all we are related, by marriage at least.

We are a very old New England family, Mr. Blair.

We dislike instant informality.

I see.

Besides, we have no way of knowing how much longer

we'll be related, have we?

BLAIR: I don't know what you mean.

Well, your sister has disappeared.

If she doesn't return very soon,

and with very good explanation about her behavior,

I think my Uncle Roger will have adequate grounds

for an annulment.

You don't want Cassandra to come back, do you?

- No, I don't. - May I ask why?

I don't like her.

I'm sure you must have a good reason for feeling that way.

If you don't mind, Mr. Blair, I would rather not discuss it.

But I do mind.

After all, she is my sister,

and I should be concerned about her

relationship with her in-laws.

Yes, we've all been concerned about that.

- Tell me what she has done to arouse this hostility? - Mr. Blair, I told you,

I would prefer not to discuss it.

Perhaps, there is nothing to discuss.

If you're so anxious to hold a seminar

on why Cassandra has managed to alienate

my entire family,

I suggest you consult Tony Peterson.

I'm sure he'd be only too glad to enlighten you.

Who is Tony Peterson?

An ex-friend of the family.

Cassandra claimed he was giving her legal advice,

but we all knew better than that.

BLAIR: What are you saying?

Well, I hope you won't consider us too puritanical, Mr. Blair,

but we do feel that a married woman

who conducts business with her lawyer in the garden

under a full moon as being a bit indiscreet.

Are you implying that Cassandra, and Mr. Peterson were lovers?

I wouldn't put it in the past tense.

I think they still are, and I think that's the reason

for Cassandra's disappearance.

Do you have any proof of that?

I don't need any proof.

She had Tony wrapped around her little finger.

He couldn't resist doing anything she told him to do.

You make it sound as though Cassandra wielded some

strange mystical power over a grown man.

CAROLYN: Yes, she did.

Tony was never the same after he'd met her.

You still haven't said anything that constitutes proof.

Therefore, I think I should look into this matter.

What do you mean?

You have made a very serious charge.

I am either going to prove it, or disprove it.

I'm going to see Mr. Peterson.

Carolyn, when are we going to Wincliff?

- Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know. - No, no, it's all right, Vicki.

This is Victoria Winters.

Vicki, this is Nicholas Blair.

Cassandra's brother.

I'm very pleased to meet you, Miss Winters.

Is anything wrong?

Oh, no, no, I just didn't know that Cassandra had any family.

BLAIR: Most people do, don't they?

Most people, yes.

If you'll excuse me, Miss Winters,

I must be on my way.

- Good afternoon. - Good afternoon.

Vicki, you want to talk about going to Wincliff?

Yes, I wondered if we could go,

and see your mother late in the afternoon.

Jeff is coming in the morning.

I wanted to have some time.

Vicki, what's the matter?

You absolutely froze when you saw Nicholas.

I don't understand it.

CAROLYN: Understand what?

How Cassandra could have a brother?

I mean, a brother here and now.

Listen, if Lucrezia Borgia could have had a brother,

I suppose Cassandra could have one, too.

You don't know what an interesting comparison

you've just made.

♪♪

[DOOR-BUZZER]

Yes?

- Mr. Peterson? - Yeah.

I am Nicholas Blair, I'm an attorney.

I hope I haven't come in a bad time.

Well, I do have quite a bit of work I have to finish.

And, I have something rather important to talk to you about.

It will only take a moment. May I come in?

Alright.

I'm not familiar with your name, Mr. Blair.

You don't practice around here, do you?

No, I represent a corporation in Boston.

We're about to institute a negligence suit

against the Collins shipping company.

Well, that's a coincidence.

- I just finished prosecuting a suit against them. - I know, you lost.

Well, the Collins family have a great deal of power.

So does the corporation I represent.

Why did you come to see me?

We think you can give us certain information that we need.

What kind of information?

Cigarette?

Yeah, thanks.

TONY: That's quite an expensive looking cigarette case

you have there.

BLAIR: You're fascinated by the jewel.

Yes.

It happens to everyone who sees it.

Keep looking at it, Mr. Peterson.

You'll find it has an intoxicating effect

the more you study it.

It's like no other jewel I've ever seen.

You're beginning to feel a little weak on your feet,

Mr. Peterson.

I think you need to sit down.

Yes.

Sit down.

There, Mr. Peterson.

Now you're quite relaxed, aren't you?

And you'll stay that way until we finish our conversation.

Your resemblance to Trask is extraordinary.

That must have amused Cassandra.

Cassandra.

Yes, I want you to tell me about Cassandra.

I love her.

I see.

What an interesting tactic for her to use.

When did you last see her?

TONY: It's been several days.

- Where is she now? - At Collinwood.

BLAIR: No, she disappeared from Collinwood two days ago,

and I think you can help me find where she is.

No, I don't know.

I want you to clear your mind, Mr. Peterson.

And concentrate very hard,

and tell me the first image that comes to you.

My mind is blank.

BLAIR: Keep concentrating until you see an image.

Something is forming.

BLAIR: Tell me what it is.

A tree, a large tree.

BLAIR: Do you see anything else?

No.

BLAIR: Where is this tree?

I don't know.

BLAIR: Is there a person near the tree?

No.

- Only ropes. - Ropes?

Yes, tied around the tree.

BLAIR: Keep concentrating, Mr. Peterson.

I must know the exact location of this tree.

I can't tell you.

The image is fading away.

There are a million trees around here.

How am I to know which is the right one?

Well, that is my problem, and not yours.

Thank you, Mr. Peterson. You've been very helpful.

BLAIR: Now you may close your eyes.

Because you are very tired,

and you need to sleep, don't you?

Yes.

When you hear me leave, you will awake.

You will return to your desk.

You will resume your work

as though none of this had ever happened.

Goodnight, Mr. Peterson.

Nicholas Blair?

Who is Nicholas Blair?

[KNOCKING]

Jeff!

Hello, Vicki.

I didn't expect you back until tomorrow.

There was no use in my staying in Portsmouth.

I was finished there.

Well don't keep me in suspense. Tell me what you found out.

I found out that Portsmouth is one big dead end.

What do you mean?

Three weeks, three weeks of investigation.

day and night and I'm nowhere.

I still don't know who I am.

♪♪

I visited hospitals.

I talked with doctors and nurses,

and city officials.

I bugged the police until they thought

I was some kind of a nut.

And nothing, absolute zero.

But that doesn't make any sense.

You were found in Portsmouth.

Yes, Lang didn't lie to me about that.

I was found wandering around the Portsmouth docks.

Well you must have had some kind of identification.

Yes, but if anyone knew about it

they wouldn't say anything.

VICKI: Not even the police?

Not even the police.

Who decided that your name was Jeff Clark?

I couldn't even get an answer to that.

The only answer I could come up with was

that Lang gave me the name when I was in the sanitarium.

Well, then, we know one thing.

Your real name isn't Jeff Clark.

Oh, yes, yes, that means that I know less now

than I did before I went to Portsmouth.

- Don't think that way. - Oh, come on, Vicki.

What do you expect me to do?

The last three weeks I've been getting nothing,

absolutely nothing.

I don't even know that,

I don't even know that I had a life before Portsmouth.

There isn't one ounce of proof that I even existed before then.

There has to be proof somewhere.

Yes, well why can't I find it?

Oh, Jeff.

Vicki, I'm sorry.

If there were just the tiniest bit of evidence.

Anything to make me, well, to give me some hope,

but nothing, Vicki.

I came back absolutely empty handed.

Hey, I don't know where to go from here.

And I don't know what to do.

Jeff, you exist here and now, and for me.

That's all that matters.

Let's forget about the past.

I wish it were as easy as that.

It can be.

How?

We're just gonna concentrate on us.

Present and future.

I guess I should count my blessings.

Be glad there is a present, and a future.

Oh, hey,

you know I brought you a present back from Portsmouth.

I almost forgot.

- A present? - Yes, it's out in the car.

Wait a minute, and I'll get it.

TRASK: Victoria Winters!

[SCREAMS]

Beware of the devil.

He is being harbored in this very house.

He walks among you in the guise of--

Vicki, what's the matter?

Trask.

Trask, you leave her alone.

Don't touch her, she's innocent.

She's innocent.

I'm...

[GROANING]

I think that proves it.

Proves what?

You saw him, too.

You recognized him. You knew who he was.

It proves that you're Peter Bradford.

♪♪

[EERIE THEME MUSIC] ♪♪